Democratic Representation: A Case Study

The following letter from a concerned farmer to his local Member of Parliament and the reply which he received illustrate only too well the way in which the farming community and indeed the rural population in general have been cheated and abandoned by politicians for the sake of a hidden agenda.

The letter

Dear MP,

As time has passed and we all try and unravel the cause of the foot and mouth epidemic, and whilst still dealing with the consequences and the continuing infection, my attention gets drawn to both problems of colleagues and articles in the press.

As I have always suspected, it was confirmed that the National Union of Farmers has major investments in both Tesco and Monsanto. How can this so-called union represent its members with this conflict of interests?

As you are probably aware 80% of subsidies are paid to 20% of farmers. I suspect that the same 20% pay 80% of the NFU subscription! 'Ministry leaks' say between 20-25% of small farmers will be gone by 2004.

In my opinion this is your government's policy and you align yourselves with the institutional farmers in the NFU and not the grassroots working farmers whom I would have expected a labour party government to work with. I suggest that any statement of interest in tenant farmers is just rhetoric.

Processors of meat who are currently purchasing meat of cattle from local farms are now taking livestock from farmers without quoting a price and pay a price to which they can make a decent margin. The farmers are losing money. On one occasion the processor at Tockenham Nr Wootton Bassett, Drury quoted a price for some lambs and actually paid 25p per kilo less five weeks later.

Bitterness is now joining the anger felt by working farmers. Please act on and respond to this information.

Yours sincerely,
A concerned farmer

The reply

Dear concerned farmer,

Thank you very much for your fax of 2 May. As you know I have real sympathy for the situation small farmers find themselves, and I appreciate your concern that larger farmers are in a better position to weather the current storm in farming. I have written to Nick Brown enclosing a copy of your letter, with a request that he respond to this point and also your concerns about practices in meat processing. I shall contact you as soon as I receive a response, but in the meantime, I hope you will not hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss this further.

Yours sincerely,
MP

To date, the farmer has received no reply, and the chances are high that he will not anyway.